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Sunday, October 24, 2010

One of the things we do well here at the Monster House is make messes. We are all extremely accomplished mess makers. This irritates the Daddy no end, and it delights the monsters when I shut down the tirade by smiling sweetly and saying, "But dear, it's sensory play, and Logan needs this! It's therapy!" I mean, really, what could the man possibly say to that? So he'll generally turn around and go into the man cave and find a game or race on Dish. And then he pouts.

Such was the case this evening, when the twinnie monsterlettes were oh so irritable, and it was too early for bed, too late to nap, and too cold and windy to go outside to run around for a minute. So, I did what any mother with my mess making talent would do. I took out the three largest baking pans I had, and started making a mess! One baking pan had flour, one had oatmeal, and one had rice. Then I set them down on the kitchen floor, showed the twinnies how to make a mess with it all, then got my camera and started taking pictures and video for the next half hour. It should be noted that we DO have a sensory table... but.. that's no fun! It's MUCH more exciting to skate all over the kitchen's vinyl flooring that's covered in flour!

My most favorite parts were when the twinnies figured out they could sit inside the baking pans with the flour, rice and oatmeal, and when Logan figured out that flour makes a heck of a mess. But you know.... messes are okay, because unlike the average two year old, Logan does not make messes or explore on his own. He is the definition of non-seeker. We have to have a variety of activities ready to go all the time to keep him stimulated long enough to concentrate on a therapy session, or eat a snack without glazing over. If we left him alone, he would have no problem staying in his crib all day.

We have also discovered gum at the Monster House. Yes, that three letter curse word that strikes fear into the heart of every mother who has ever had to take a razor to her carpet or scissors to a child's hair. We love gum here. Logan chews it for hours, and amazingly, since he has started doing that, he's gained by leaps and bounds with his speech therapy.....and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a chew stick! And he has never once not thrown it away when he wanted a fresh piece... the mintier, the better.

Though the doctors and therapists insist that Logan's twin Colton has no sensory issues, I beg to differ. That child has hated clothes since birth, and we figured out early on when Colton had colic that the ONLY way he would settle for any amount of time was to be swaddled so tightly I told the daddy it was child abuse. But Colton is a seeker as much as Logan is not, and Colton hates hates hates vacuum cleaners, blow dryers and the like, while it affects Logan not at all. We will be getting Colton evaluated through EI as soon as they have a staff again...

I feel very blessed because I DO have twins, so I can shift and tweak some of the therapies and strategies I have learned for Logan over to Colton. And, I know where to go when I have questions now, whereas when it was Logan, I was completely clueless. Isn't it great when things come together like this?

So, we had a lovely Family Day, made a HECK of a mess ( this is why God invented vacuum cleaners), and we have digital proof of laughter and messes and family. It just don't get much better than that. Well.. maybe it does... because, SURPRISE! I kinda put together a couple of pictures for you to look at. Hope y'all don't mind.

3 comments:

This is great! I have a plastic storage drawer that I keep rice and toys in -- I think it holds about 5 pounds of rice. When AJ wants to play with it, together we pull it onto a large tablecloth and then he pulls it, holding the corners of the tablecloth, into the kitchen (pulling heavy things - good for input too). He and his brother try to keep the rice in the bin or at least on the tablecloth, but I usually find rice all over the house, in underwear and in hair. But it's worth it!

Logan loves to push his high chair around, and his bubble mower, and the boxes his huggies come in. We usually fill them with toys, or sneak a couple bags of rice or dry beans in the seat of the high chair so it's more effective as a heavy moving therapy. The thing he loves the MOST though,is a big ugly yellow industrial mop bucket with wheels, and he goes all over the house collecting things in his bucket and pushing it around. Like... Colton, his brother! ;)